Previous systems and methods have attempted to provide electronic music displays as an alternative to requiring musicians to manually turn pages. However, such solutions have not conquered the many obstacles that exist in providing electronic music displays because, for example, they require manual intervention, either directly to activate the scrolling or as a consequence of mistakes made by the musician (i.e., playing the wrong note).
More particularly, existing solutions are generally not automatic and/or are not synchronized with the execution of music notes played by the musician. These solutions exempt the musician from undertaking manual actions in only very limited circumstances. For example, in one existing system designed for use by an orchestra, a cursor is displayed on a screen containing sheet music in order to indicate the current beat set by the director. However, if the director makes a mistake, the musician is then forced to determine for himself what the correct position of the cursor should be. In another existing system, the musician may activate the scrolling of music on a display by using his or her foot. However, for obvious reasons, this type of system may not be used in conjunction with instruments that are played, at least in part, with the feet (e.g. a piano or an organ). In yet another existing system, automatic time-based scrolling is used to scroll the music notes on a display based upon a predetermined time interval. However, the automatic scrolling solution utilizing a customizable time interval is often times inaccurate, thereby scrolling either ahead of or behind time and disrupting the musician's ability to play the proper notes at the proper tempo.
Furthermore, existing solutions do not adequately take into account the fact that reading “sheet” music is not always sequential like reading a book. For example, when reading sheet music, sets of beats may be repeated and may terminate differently at any repetition. Furthermore, under certain circumstances, there may be “jumps” from one page to another page.
Based on the foregoing, there exists a need for an improved system and method for automatically scrolling music on a display based upon recognition of the music notes previously played or sung by a musician.